Seeing that her father-in-law was unhappy, Zhu Mei didn't dare to say anything more.
Although Yejiacun was not considered remote, transportation was inconvenient in those days, and there were no roads built. Xiaohua's older brother borrowed a hand tractor from the village to take her and her child to town to find her third brother.
The third brother has a junior high school education. Xiaohua's third brother is named Ye Shengxi. Their generation is the "Sheng" generation. The four older brothers are named after the four cardinal directions. Ye Dazhuang doesn't have much education either, so he just came up with a name randomly. But this name is actually quite good. It sounds a bit like the name of a male protagonist in a youth novel.
Having a junior high school education was considered cultured in those days. He was an elementary school teacher in the town. He escorted Xiaohua and her mother to Tongguan City by car, and then took them to the train station to catch a train to Haishi.
They arrived in Tongguan City in the evening. At the guesthouse, Xiaohua's third brother called the He family to say that he would send Xiaohua and her daughter to catch the train early the next morning. The train would arrive in Haishi at around 11 p.m. the next night.
They told the He family to send someone to pick up her and her daughter.
The person who answered the phone was He Ya, the eldest daughter of the He family and He Yan's older sister. She simply said "I understand" and hung up. Ye Shengxi naturally assumed that they would send someone to pick up Xiao Hua and her daughter.
The next morning, Ye Shengxi took his sister and niece to the train station.
At the train station, Ye Shengxi gave Xiaohua a red envelope wrapped in red paper: "Here is a hundred yuan for you to take, so you and your child can spend it carefully."
Xiao Hua quickly declined, saying, "No, no, Third Brother, I don't want this money. I have money to spend. You should keep it to save for your future wife."
Xiao Hua's eldest and second eldest brothers are married, but her third and fourth eldest brothers are still unmarried. In those days, teachers' salaries were not high, and one hundred yuan was probably several months' salary for her third brother.
“He Yan has a high salary, so he probably won’t skimp on your money. But it’s always good to have some extra money with the He family.”
Third Brother insisted that she accept the money, so Xiaohua had no choice but to take it.
Before getting on the bus, Ye Shengxi still couldn't help but tell his sister, "When you get to the He family, be diligent, do more work and talk less. When you have free time, learn to recognize more characters. Everyone in that family can read and write, but you're completely blind and can't recognize any characters. How can that work? Be good, Hua'er. Listen to your third brother. Learn more characters when you have free time. Don't be lazy and greedy like you were when you were a girl at your parents' home. When I told you to go to school to learn characters, you would sneak home to sleep. People may look down on you for a while, but they can't look down on you forever."
Xiaohua's eyes stung as she looked at her third brother's earnest and worried words. She also had an older brother in modern times, but he was good-for-nothing, and her parents favored him. She worked hard to support the whole family, but her brother was always playing games or giving gifts to streamers at home. Her parents even complained that she didn't earn enough to buy her brother a house, and that her brother couldn't get married so her parents couldn't have a grandchild.
She was driven to work herself to the bone by her parents' manipulation, and eventually died suddenly at her workstation.
Unexpectedly, when she came here, her parents, brother, and sister-in-law all treated her like a treasure, doting on her and spoiling her.
With tears welling up in her eyes, she nodded and said, "Yes, Third Brother, I'll listen to you. I'll try to learn more characters whenever I have free time. I won't let the He family continue to look down on me or our family."
And so, Xiaohua took the girl on the train to Haishi. The train slowly arrived in Haishi at 11:30 p.m., after sitting for 7:30 a.m.
The baby fussed many times during the journey, so she had to carry the baby and walk around the carriage. The carriage was full of people, so it was inconvenient for her to breastfeed. Fortunately, she had come prepared and brought a black cloth from home to cover herself while breastfeeding.
It was truly a heartbreaking journey!
But what she didn't expect was that even more heartbreaking things were yet to come. After she and her child got out of the car, no one from the He family came to pick them up in the middle of the night. Poor thing, she had just finished her postpartum confinement. Putting aside whether her body was weak after just finishing her confinement, her baby couldn't withstand such an ordeal.
At that moment, Xiaohua's heart shattered into seven, eight, or ninety pieces. Even if He Yan hated her, he couldn't just ignore his own flesh and blood.
People passing by couldn't help but cast pitying glances at her as she stood alone in the chilly train station, carrying large and small bags and holding a baby in her arms.
She had never been to the old-fashioned train station in Shanghai before, so she was completely unfamiliar with the place.
"Hello comrade, may I ask for your help?"
Xiaohua looked at the uncle in the hat standing guard next to her, but still shamelessly walked over.
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